Dramatic moments in Oscars history
Will Smith not the only star to cause a stir at the ceremony
Reminder: There was life at the Oscars before “the slap,” and there will be life again.
When Will Smith charged the stage during the 2022 ceremony and smacked Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, it certainly made that award show one of the more noteworthy in history. Assault on live television is memorable, if not something I advocate.
The clip was analyzed like the Zapruder film, GIFed and memed into one of the most talked-about moments of the year. The night became even more surreal when Smith won the best actor award and gave a self-serving speech that turned out to be his swan song with the Academy. Shortly thereafter, Smith was banned from the Oscars for 10 years and resigned his membership.
But while that was certainly the most memorable thing to happen at the Oscars last year, it’s by no means the most memorable in my lifetime. Have we all forgotten the “La La Land”/ “Moonlight” mix up so quickly?
In the history of the televised show there have been protests, nude streakers and even a musical number where Rob Lowe and Snow White sang “Proud Mary” (more on that shortly). I repeat, there were great Oscar moments before the slap.
This year’s ceremony has potential to be memorable. There’s a lot of fan excitement around nominee “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and it feels rare that a crowd pleaser is a front-runner. Ke Huy Quan, a best supporting actor nominee for the film, also has one of the great comeback stories in Hollywood history, going from child star in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” to two decades of little work, to now being nominated for an Oscar. I hope host Jimmy Kimmel deftly skewers the slap early in the evening, then gets the focus back on the nominees.
Ahead of the Sunday ceremony, here are some of my most memorable Oscar moments from the past four decades.
First, Snow White
In 1989 “Beach Blanket Babylon” impresario Steve Silver staged an opening number for the ceremony that included a Coconut Grove nightclub set, old movie stars like Alice Faye and Vincent Price, and, yes, Rob Lowe singing “Proud
Mary” with “Beach Blanket” performer Eileen Bowman as Snow White. Even if you were familiar with Snow White’s longtime role in the now closed San Francisco production, the number was deliciously weird — and Disney sued over the use of Snow White. Every year, I hope something tops it.
Tom Hanks’ 1994 acceptance speech becomes its own film
Beloved Bay Area icon Tom Hanks won back-to-back best actor awards in 1994-95, and his acceptance speech in ’94 for the AIDS drama “Philadelphia” made news of his own.
Hanks eulogized his classmate John Gilkerson, who died of the disease, and thanked his drama teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland, Rawley Farnsworth, saying “they are two of the finest gay Americans, two wonderful men that I had the good fortune to be associated with.” The story of Hanks “outing” his drama teacher overshadowed his tribute to those who died of AIDS, even though the actor had previously spoken to Farnsworth ahead of the show and the teacher had given his approval.
In 1997, the incident inspired the hit comedy “In & Out,” written by Paul Rudnick, where a drama teacher’s life is upended by a similar speech. Hanks dedicated the theater at Skyline High School to Farnsworth in 2002 after raising funds for its renovation.